Until Friday, I was getting worried. It was starting to look as though Bush's approval rating was beginning to level off in the mid 50s. The last several polls before then had put him anywhere between 53 and 60%.
Then the Ipsos-Reid poll was released, putting him at 52% (45% disapproval). This was quickly followed by Saturday's release of the CNN/Time poll (52%/42%) and the
Zogby Poll (45%/54%!!! Praise be Jeesus and Hallelujah!!). http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm Now Zogby always polls a little low, but it is no more an outlier than the latest Gallup (59%), which historically rates Bush a bit high. If nothing else, this weekend's poll results demonstrate that Bush's popularity is indeed still declining, perhaps faster than ever.
Now, Saturday (even after the Zogby Poll came out), I was a bit depressed reading the news reports. Searching Google News, the only Bush/poll-related stories getting much press were along the lines of "70% still feel Iraq was behind 9-11" and ""60-70% still feel Iraq was justified and we are doing the right thing". The plummetting poll numbers for Bush were being mentioned near the end of the articles if at all (and every mention of the Zogby poll I saw didn't mention that his disapproval was now over 50%).
Likewise, Friday, all of the headlines regarding the CNN/Time poll results centered on "Only 38% feel that a Democrat can beat Bush". Yet the same poll showed only 29% were definitely planning on voting for Bush, and 41% were definitely NOT going to vote for him. Shouldn't THAT have been the headline? The former is asking the American people who they THINK other people are going to vote for, and the latter is asking them who they ARE going to vote for. Seems to me the latter is a lot more accurate.
Then I got to thinking... it doesn't matter how the media casts these poll results.
No media spin has ever put a stop to the amazingly consistent (perhaps unprecedented) decline in popularity this president has experienced throughout his term. The only things that have ever caused his popularity ratings to bump up were an attack against the U.S. of unheard of proportions, and a major war. In the first case, any nation with a heart would try to "come together", and that alone accounts for why Bush isn't below 30% today. In the second case, the war (invasion), well, we tried to "get behind' our president, but we just didn't quite have the enough "heart" to go the extra mile for him. Or make that enough trust. He has now shot that trust all to hell.
They can try to spin it however they want, but the fact remains (despite all the spin) that people are becoming more and more disenchanted with Bush every day. They are getting tired of the bad economy, with the only response being more tax cuts. They are getting wary of the situation in Iraq, and starting to wonder if we are now less safe and not more safe than before 9-11. They are tired of the lies, and have lost their trust in Bush.
And all of this before the piling on that will now start because, with ratings below 50%, Bush will now no longer be seen as a "popular president".
Another war will only cause Bush to be viewed even more suspiciously, and increase his image as a warmonger. We no longer trust him to make the decision to go to war, having been "had" the first time. Another terrorist attack will only show that we are indeed less safe than we were before.
Rove has nothing up his sleeve that can get Bush out this time. Face it, it's amazing that he's been able to get a man as stunningly ignorant as Bush this far. You've really got to congratulate him on a job "well done". But it's over. I know a lot of you might say "yes, but 60% still feel Iraq was the right thing to do" or "70% still feel Hussein was behind 9-11". You'll say "But the American people don't care about facts. They just want to kick some Arab butt and they actually LIKE the neo-con idea of a new American empire!". But another story is told by the plummetting approval numbers, along with numbers like
the latest Zogby "Vote for Bush?/Vote for Democrat?" numbers of 40%/52% (again, Praise be Jeesus and Hallelujah!!). It's hard to admit you were lied to, and most of these people simply say Iraq was linked to 9-11 because the news told them so. People may not consciously realize that every time "the news told them" Iraq and 9-11 were linked, it was clip from another Bush speech mentioning Hussein and 9-11 in the same breath. But they realize, deep inside, that they were misled. They also think we just need to finish what we started in Iraq, so they are going to say we are "doing the right thing". But it is
THEIR sons and daughters over there. They have to do
a LOT more than, as Bush likes to say, "hug the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids on the death of their loved ones."
They ARE these mothers and widows and wives and children! And to top it off, many of them don't have jobs!Bush is toast. A one-termer. Like Father Like Son. 
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